Who to target first
Start with SME manufacturers of connected and embedded products: industrial equipment, IoT devices, medical and lab hardware, and software vendors selling into the EU. These are firms with real CRA exposure and no in-house compliance function, which is exactly where your service is worth the most. A manufacturer with a large existing security team is a harder sale because they may believe they can absorb the work internally.
The objections you will hear
The three you hear most: we will wait until closer to the deadline, our lawyers handle regulation, and we already run a bug bounty. Answer the first with the calendar, because standing up a disclosure process and a conformity assessment takes months and Article 14 is already close. Answer the second by separating legal interpretation from the operational process the CRA demands, which is engineering and disclosure work, not legal drafting. Answer the third by noting that a bug bounty is intake, while the CRA requires a full handling process, reporting to ENISA, and a documented conformity path.
Every common objection is answered by scope or by the clock. The CRA asks for an operational process on a fixed deadline, and that is what you deliver.
Qualifying quickly
Two questions qualify a prospect fast. Does the product have digital elements and reach the EU market, which decides whether they are in scope. And do they have a coordinated disclosure process and a conformity plan today, which decides how much work is ahead. A yes on scope and a no on readiness is your best client, and there are many of them.